There’s no letter for this date, but from later correspondence we learn that Walter did get to Uvalde in early May. On the 10th, he proposed to Ina. She accepted.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
April 23, 1925
Stationery: Walter E. Dove, 4529 Reiger Avenue, Dallas, Texas
April 23, 1925
Dear Ina,
Was pleased to get your letter and to know that I can see you occasionally before very long. I know about how you feel toward me and I couldn’t blame you if you didn’t give me a date. I really have been mean though my intentions were not so mean as it appeared. Will tell you how it happened and ask you to forgive me, and if you feel that you can’t, I won’t trouble you any more. I guess if you had had very much temper I would have had a good reprimand, but you were too sweet to do that.
April 23, 1925
Am working up a manuscript for the meeting just now and I have been fairly busy but not as much as during last winter. I cannot tell just when we will go to Uvalde and I guess I had better wait until I get there before I ask for a date. I presume there are equally as many as there were last year, so I am speaking early. However, if you don’t feel that I should have your company, don’t do it just for courtesy. I really want to see you, and will be mighty glad to be with you again. Mr. Laake thinks that it will probably be about the 10th of May, which should give me ample time to get the manuscript off my hands. Feel like I have already accomplished a year’s work since I saw you, and I look upon this more like a vacation.
With very best wishes,
Walter.
April 9, 1925
Dallas, Texas,
April 9, 1925.
Dear Ina,
It seemed like old times “a year ago” to get your letter today and I enjoyed it very much. No doubt it will be only a couple of weeks before I see you, and I am anxious.
Am working on a manuscript and also doing some work on the cottage lawn and floors, so I am pretty busy just now. Hope to get through before we leave for Uvalde. The manuscript should be completed as soon as possible as it will be presented the latter part of next month and it has a number of hands to go through yet for the necessary criticism. Have been pretty much on the job ever since that work started and I believe we have a real contribution to make. Am anxious to get as much done as possible before next summer’s work starts, as there will be less credit in having assistance next summer. I am anxious to have Dr. White down there with me and I believe it will be arranged OK. In all probability we will have some one from another Bureau too, and I am not so eager for that. However, we must show the courtesy of an invitation as we are getting into another domain to some extent.
April 9, 1925
Had another letter from the little French boy a few days ago. He is a pretty prompt correspondent considering the distance.
I am in hopes that I can see more of you this summer than I did last year, and with a beginning earlier in the season, we ought to be pretty well acquainted before I leave Uvalde. It all depends on how many you are dividing your time with, and provided I can get a share of it. I hope you will be liberal enough to let me see you fairly often.
In what direction are you living from Uvalde? Are you between Regan Wells and Uvalde? I imagine we will be up there again this summer, and as far as I can tell most of the men are going to have their wives with them. This is a good reason why you should be considerate enough of me to let me see you. However, I wouldn’t want you to do this just as a matter of courtesy. Don’t let me impose on that sweet disposition of yours. We will talk it over, and see what we have to say about it.
Am glad that you are enjoying a vacation, and I hope you can come up to the Wells and spend some time with us. I think you would like Mrs. Roark and Mrs. Laake, and with a number of these ladies I think you would be properly chaperoned.
I wasn’t very nice to some of Mrs. Roark’s friends in Washington and she may not like me for it, but I wasn’t interested and I guess I was not very courteous in calling on them. I am yet of the same opinion that the girls don’t grow as pretty in any place like they do in Mississippi*. This is a comp. It would be nice if Mrs. Parman could come up to the Wells and spend a while with you up there, as I know that you two get along nicely together.
Looking forward to seeing you, I am
Sincerely,
Walter.
* Though Ina spent most of her formative years in Texas, she was born in Mississippi.
March 24, 1925
Dallas, Texas,
March 24, 1925
Dear Ina,
I am mighty glad to get back and everything looks good to me. Had a wonderful time at Jax and the work was very interesting but short. I hated to leave there so soon, as a week passed before I realized it. I have plenty to keep me busy and out of mischief while here and I am expected to help the other fellows some. As this includes a trip to Uvalde, I will welcome it with open arms. I have wanted to see you for some time, and before many weeks I hope to come down.
March 24, 1925
I had used a sheet of this stationery to write a little 6 yr. old girl at Jax, daughter of my landlady there. She admired the stationery and had kept it as a treasure. Had a letter from my French boy not long ago, and he has made a wonderful improvement in school.
I went out to see the cottage this afternoon and everything is fine. It has not been rented, as I am particular as to whom I get to live there. The Japanese (Yon-o-mus) (I can’t spell it) shrubs were winter killed but all are coming out again. One of the Arba vitas (I can’t spell this either) will have to be replaced. I was surprised to find that the fixtures and even the water hose were not stolen, as I rather expected that I would have to replace them. The floors are pretty dusty as it seems to have been inspected during my absence. The neighbors have probably looked it over.
Had to stop writing when “Bobbie” brought his youngster over. He is a friend of mine and the boy is about a year old. A real pretty baby. A little time makes a great many changes. I am waiting for another boy friend to come by. He has been married and divorced since we three ran together. He made a mistake and they became divorced.
This is Wednesday night as Alvis and I visited until 1:30 this morning and I have just gotten back to finish this letter. He is the best boy friend I have ever had, and I always look forward to seeing him.
Have gotten started on my work here and I am anxious to get further developments for the Amer. Med. report in May. If I get it worked up like I want to, there will be little left to interest another Bureau. However, we will have to invite one to join us next summer, but most of the joy will be taken out of the problem before then.
Just before I left Wash. I had Sheetz to mail you some Martha Washington candy. I thought I had better tell you, or you might think that the other fellow sent them. The one who went squirrel hunting with you.
I am anxious to see you and I’ll be glad when the time comes to come down there. I hope I can see you more than I did last year. It sounds good to me that you are going to take a vacation.
With very best wishes,
Always
Walter
March 17, 1925
Hotel Stationery from “The Everett – European Plan”
Jacksonville, Fla. March 17 1925
Dear Ina,
Was pleased to get your letter this morning as I had considerable doubt as to whether or not you would answer. I am looking forward to my return to Dallas and for the time to come for us to go to Uvalde. I want to see you and lots more than you think I do. I don’t imagine I will ever square myself with you, for you have an awful opinion of me at present. However, I am not really so mean as it has seemed.
March 17, 1925
The winter has gone so quickly that I don’t realize it. I was so busy that I almost forgot about everything. I arrived here the 13th and Sat. Dr. K.S. and I went about 100 miles south on a fishing trip. Fished all day Sunday and had a real good time. Have had some work to do here and within a few days I expect to go to Dallas. Will be busy preparing a report for the American Med. meeting which is held at Atlantic City during the latter part of May. Dr. K.S. will be there with Dr. White, but I’ll not go to this one. Will get credit for my work just the same, and probably more credit than I am entitled to claim. Will tell you all about it when I see you. If you are not working then, I hope I can see you a great deal.
You mean more to me than you think, and I am anxious to see you.
Sincerely,
Walter.
Box 208
Dallas
Sunday School Teacher Training, 1925
Perhaps one reason Ina was slow to respond to letters was that she was in training to be a Sunday school teacher. This certificate was filed with the letters.
Sunday School Certification
March 8, 1925
Washington D.C.
March 8, 1925.
Dear Ina,
I haven’t had an answer to my letter and I wonder if I will get one or if there is some doubt in your mind as to where to send it. May be I don’t deserve an answer, but I’d like one just the same.
I expect to leave here about Wednesday for Jacksonville and I’ll be there for at least a week. Am looking forward to a good fishing trip while there. Dr. Kirby-Smith says they are biting good. Mr. Bishopp is getting anxious for me to return to Dallas and I am equally as anxious to get there. I certainly had some job here but it was worth the effort. With the exception of a very few evenings I have been on the job constantly since the middle of November. I did stop long enough to eat Christmas dinner with one of the men and his family. I have made between fifty and sixty thousand sections from the skin tissue taken at Jax this summer, and am able to demonstrate the thing in five instances. This was mighty good news to Dr. K.S. as he has been searching for the thing during the past fifteen years. There are no less than fifty reports in medical literature, dating back to ’92, and none have found the thing that causes the majority of the cases. During the past week have worked with a photographer in getting photos made, and I imagine it will take us until Wednesday to get prints and slides made. I hope to have Dr. White with me at Jax next summer, and possibly also Dr. Ransom. They will probably be there during the clinic.
March 8, 1925
I am in hopes of being at Uvalde during the spring, and there is no one in the world whom I want to see more than I do you. I trust you will grant me permission. I have something to tell you, and when I have told you I hope you won’t think I am so mean and heartless.
With every good wish, I am,
As ever,
Walter.
P.S. This is swell stationery for me to be using, and I only use it when I write to you.
January 30, 1925
Washington, D.C.
Jan 30, 1925
Dear Ina,
I really would love to hear from you more often but you would not believe it from the lapse of time since I received your letter. Since I arrived here the middle of November I have been on the job almost constantly, evenings and Sundays included. I have seriously neglected my correspondence, so please don’t feel that I did it intentionally. I have thought of you a great many times and I wish that I could see you. I am sorry that you have been disappointed in me, but I hope you will understand when I see you.
January 30, 1925
I have had hopes of returning and it takes so much more time than I had anticipated. If I can get away by March 1st I will be doing well. Mr. Bishopp suggested that he would like to have me in Dallas at that time, and I am anxious to get back. Then I’ll be anxious to come to Uvalde.
We are well pleased with the progress of the Florida work and feel that we have a real contribution to make at the American Med Assn next June. It has been a long tedious job to run down the cause, but we have it and find the same thing whenever we find one. I am now sectioning a piece of tissue taken from the back of a little Jew boy*. The piece was divided into twelve pieces, and each of these will average about a thousand sections. That will be twelve thousand sections from one piece of tissue, which was about the size of a half dollar when removed. They are mounted on slides of about 18 to each, but each slide goes through about 20 solutions. I am glad that I took most of the sections about the size of a finger nail.
I will be anxious to hear from you,
Always,
Walter.
* Please see the new note on political correctness on the “About” page.
January 6, 1925
Washington D.C.
Jan 6, 1925.
Dear Ina,
Your letter gave me a thrill, for the double envelope looked as though it might have been an announcement or invitation to a wedding. It was quite a relief to see handwriting inside, though you made me wish that I had been there during the holidays.
The scientific meetings have closed and most of the men have gone, but there are a few visitors even yet. Mr. Bishopp will probably be here for several days yet. I brought so much skin from the patients in Florida that it has given me a real job here. We estimated the time it would require to complete the work and with night work as I have had during the past six weeks, I’ll be here until March 1st. I doubted if they would allow me to stay here that long but Mr. Bishopp has agreed to it. This will put me in Dallas about the time Dr. and Mrs. Roark come down and no doubt some of the Dallas folks will go to Uvalde with them. I am in hopes that I can go pretty soon after arriving at Dallas for I want to see you.
January 6, 1925
We will not get a special appropriation for the Florida work next year as our Chief would not accept it until he was sure that the project belonged to this Bureau. The fact is that it does not belong to us but the Director of Research for the whole Department agreed that I could continue even though it does not belong to us, but we cannot get an appropriation specially for it. This means that I’ll have to work single-handed again. Though I am in hopes that I can get Dr. White to come down during the clinic.
I wouldn’t take anything for the experience with Dr. White. It is better than a special course in a University on the same thing. He is an MD and PhD but goes to a University for special work quite often, yet. He is about 55 years old. I couldn’t possibly have a better man to work with on this problem.
The parasite causing the creeping eruption is about 1/50 of an inch long and 1/1200 of an inch wide, and there is only one to a lesion. This may give you an idea of what the problem is. The color is the same as human tissue. It has to be stained and then studied microscopically under oil immersion magnification. No wonder Dr. K.S. hadn’t been able to locate it during 14 years of practice. I really believed that I had the thing isolated last summer when I wrote you about it, but the people here didn’t think I could be right. This time we have it in sections in human skin so there is no question about it. If you can find time I’d be mighty glad to hear from you.
Always
Walter.
December 30, 1924
Washington D.C.
Dec. 30, 1924.
Dear Ina,
This is some stationery and I am using it to write to a mighty sweet little girl. I am not so sure that she wants me to write to her but when she sent such nice stationery I am going to write anyway.
Today I have been attending the scientific meetings and have found them very interesting. Mr. Bishopp came this morning. I had expected Mr. Parman too, for he is on two papers but I guess Mr. Bishopp will present them.
December 30, 1924
I met Prof. Harris of Miss. A&M this noon and have spent most of today with him. He seemed just as interested in me as when I left college and has been quite an inspiration to me. He has been talking to me regarding a PhD degree. He thinks that now is the time for me to work for it. I have been thinking of this for some little time and if possible I want to arrange so that I can get credit for my work with the Bureau.
I am getting along very well with the sectioning and staining and have the causative parasite in sections, but have not made an attempt to have it identified until Mr. Bishopp came up. The problem is out of our domain but if possible I want to arrange to continue the work.
I hope you will let me hear from you often as I enjoy your letters more than you know. I hope the New Year will be the happiest you have ever had.
Always
Walter.